Everyone is flipping out over a report from the Associated Press about what Trump told the Mexican president in a phone call today:
President Donald Trump threatened in a phone call with his Mexican counterpart to send U.S. troops to stop “bad hombres down there” unless the Mexican military does more to control them, according to an excerpt of a transcript of the conversation obtained by The Associated Press.
The excerpt of the call did not detail who exactly Trump considered “bad hombres,” nor did it make clear the tone and context of the remark, made in a Friday morning phone call between the leaders. It also did not contain Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto’s response. Mexico denies that Trump made the threat.
And…
“You have a bunch of bad hombres down there,” Trump told Pena Nieto, according to the excerpt given to AP. “You aren’t doing enough to stop them. I think your military is scared. Our military isn’t, so I just might send them down to take care of it.”
A person with access to the official transcript of the phone call provided only that portion of the conversation to The Associated Press. The person gave it on condition of anonymity because the administration did not make the details of the call public.
BUT, while that sounds exactly like the kind of idiotically stupid thing that might issue forth from the loud-mouth of the president, CNN disputes the report.
My reporting suggests the AP is not quoting a transcript it is quoting from an internal WH readout of the Trump/Peña Nieto call. I have …1
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) February 2, 2017
2 an excerpt of the transcript & we’re about to publish what President Trump actually said on the call. It’s not as antagonistic as readout
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) February 2, 2017
According to an excerpt of the transcript of the call with Peña Nieto provided to CNN, Trump said, “You have some pretty tough hombres in Mexico that you may need help with. We are willing to help with that big-league, but they have be knocked out and you have not done a good job knocking them out.”
Trump made an offer to help Peña Nieto with the drug cartels.
The excerpt of the transcript obtained by CNN differs with an official internal readout of the call that wrongly suggested Trump was contemplating sending troops to the border in a hostile way.
So it sounds similar, but with a turn a phrase that completely changes the tone of the offer. In fact, American law enforcement already helps Mexico a lot with combatting against drug lords and other crime, in order to keep it from spilling over into our land.
So who’s more likely to be correct?